Recently a friend asked me why I keep inviting her to Spokane Young Professional Events. It struck me that more people may have the same question. As the conversation unfolded it became clear that she didn’t think networking events were a good fit for her because as she put it “I’m not a professional”. I reminded her that she regularly tries to get me to sign up for her service. I am in the process of signing up now.

This post is an attempt to dispel some myths about what the professional tag is and is not. Let’s start by saying that SYP events are open to all, regardless of your profession and age. Our goal is to provide a platform for young people (young is subjective) to meet, socialize and prosper. This can be applied by individuals both to your personal and professional goals and aspirations.

There are so many different people that can benefit from attending SYP events.

Employed: Create, nurture & progress professional connections.

Unemployed: Meet a broad cross section of people from various industries and plan your next career move.

Self Employed: Connect with a captive audience who may become customers, employees, partners, advisors or friends.

Employer/Recruiter: Meet potential employees who are actively engaged in the young professional community.

Business Owner: Are you looking to introduce your products and services to a new captive audience with disposable income? SYP events could be a great place to do just that.

Sales Professionals: Regardless of the product or service you sell, you can grow your professional and personal center of influence.

Slightly Older People: Yes we are a “young professionals” organization but this is a very subjective term. Maybe you fall in to one of the previous categories mentioned but you want to meet millennials to gain a fresh perspective or perhaps you understand that Millennials make great employees.

Spokane Young Professional events are a fun way to grow your personal and professional network but we also do more than that. We shine a spotlight on thriving and vibrant businesses throughout Spokane. This focus provides new and established businesses a chance to captivate our event attendees and compel them to return and become regular patrons.

We would love to see so many different categories within our working community represented. Some of the fields we see rarely include:

Teachers

Health Care Professionals

College Professors & Educators

Skilled Trade Workers

Military Personnel

If you have not attended one of our events, you should! The worst thing that can happen is you get to visit a cool Spokane business with other young people. The alternative is you get to enjoy an evening with those same people while your network grows professionally and personally.

Spokane Young Professionals accepts the “#RDowntownSpokane” challenge

Join the Spokane Young Professionals in accepting the #RDowntownSpokane challenge from the City of Spokane Employees. The focus of this challenge is to encourage all members of SYP, in support of Future Spokane, to patron businesses along the Lincoln/Monroe corridor in Downtown Spokane throughout the week of September 26-30.

Please join SYP as we rally to support our downtown business. Enjoy coffee, lunch, dinner or shopping at the list of downtown businesses and spread the word on social media with the hash tag #SYPSupportsDowntown and #RDowntownSpokane

The ongoing construction is part of the voter-approved projects that are making downtown a better place to live, work, and play. Getting around downtown is still a snap. For project updates and information, please visit: www.futurespokane.org

The SYP Arbor Crest event for 2016 was a success! It was well attended and we got great feedback from the members and guests. We had a little rain at the end of the evening but it was still a great time.